An Italian woman who spent nine months alone in an underground laboratory emerged from her isolation Friday and said she had dreamt of travel and wide open spaces.
Cristina Lanzoni, 29, endured 269 days of solitary confinement in a subterranean chamber known as the Underlab in the Frasassi caves in central Italy, as part of an experiment to test the effects of isolation.Project organizers said Lanzoni adopted the sleep patterns of a baby, lost all normal sense of time and shed 22 pounds.
She also spent some of her time creating an artificial sky and seascape from papier mache.
Asked what she had dreamed of, Lanzoni told reporters after returning to the surface:
"Of travel, wide open spaces and horse riding."
She said she had calculated the passage of time by when she slept and when she had felt hungry.
When project controllers told her Thursday that the experiment was over in a computer message giving the date and the time, Lanzoni replied she thought it was Oct. 31, 1994.
Scientists said that an average day for Lanzoni lasted 54 to 56 hours, with 14 to 16 hours of sleep. Her longest period without sleep was 56 hours.
The scientists added that Lanzoni abandoned adult sleep patterns for those of a newborn infant, which falls immediately into deep sleep characterized by REM (rapid eye movement).
Organizers say the next experiment in the chamber, which can be seen by visitors touring the caves, will involve a group.